Canadians Disgruntled With Bank Fees

At Synergy Merchant Services, we are quite proud of the fact that we provide small to medium-sized business owners in Canada with a quick and easy alternative to bank loans. Our merchant cash advance program offers these owners many benefits including the fact that instead of an interest rate, a one time fee is charged.

With that, our clients are ensured that there are no hidden fees, extra charges or accruing interest rates. They know exactly the cost of the cash advance to the penny before engaging into any agreement with our company. From experience, we know that business owners across Canada are disgruntled with the many different fees associated with banks.

QMI Agency’s Sharon Singleton highlights that customers across Canada – both business owners and consumers alike – are growing increasingly upset with bank fees, as well as the trouble that comes with getting their problems resolved at banks. Yesterday, she wrote about a recent J.D. Power report about customer satisfaction that revealed these findings.

The study found that there is a growing concern for bank fees in Canada. The problem, according to the report, is not so much with the fees themselves as it is generally understood that fees must be charged. But many customers feel that the reason for the fees are not often described clearly.

Lubo Li is the senior director of the financial services practice at J.D. Power and Associates in Toronto. Said Li: “It’s not that you can’t charge fees, it’s just that they need to be communicated clearly so customers know what they are getting for their money. Just calling something a maintenance fee doesn’t cut it.”

Li went on to say that the recent study showed that when customers have their fees explained to them, customer satisfaction increases. Of course, the problems that Canadians have is that they often don’t understand what they are being charged for. Singleton points out Courtney Barber, a St John’s based contract administrator, as an example of a disgruntled bank customer.

After graduating from university, Barber switched her student bank account to a lower-fee account which offered her fewer free debit transactions. The result was an extra $90 a month in transaction fees over the course of nine months! She hadn’t realized that she was being charged new fees for her debit card transactions.

Exclaimed Barber: “When I no longer qualified for the student account, I assumed the bank would roll my account over into something with similar services…Instead, I was getting ripped off with a per-use fee for my debit transactions — an account that was not at all suitable for the type of customer I am.”